Pathfinder
by teamaster2
Summary: Humanity was devastated after the Great War, and forced into Anima. However, after 80 years, rumors of strange individuals appearing in the wilderness started flowing into the Kingdoms of those searching for places thought lost to time. Jaune Arc is one such individual who finds himself in Vale looking for just that.


Night time in Vale was always a strange and dangerous place depending on where you were, but most outsiders saw it was a welcoming place. A haven and paradise free from the dangers of the Grimm and other dangers in the wilderness. However, not all did see it this way, Jaune Arc was one such individual. See, part of the problem was he was the only human in the entire city and the first since the end of The Great War almost eighty years ago and the Scourge that followed it. It also didn't help that the street ahead of him exploded.

"Well, that's certainly new." He thought out loud, but quietly was a girl that couldn't be any older than himself quite literally beat the crap out of at least three armed thugs, although calling them thugs would be generous.

"You were worth every cent, you truly were." Another man that exited the store said quietly. "Well Red," He started as he took the cigar in his mouth out, "I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening," He continued as he dropped the cigar and crushed it under his cane, "and as much as I'd love to stick around… I'm afraid this is where we part ways." As soon as he finishes, he points the cane at the girl. With his helmet's magnification, he could see an iron sight appear from the end.

"Oh shit," Jaune muttered as the realization struck him. The man in question fired what appeared to be a shard of fire Dust at the girl, who showed a remarkable amount of agility by jumping over it. Sadly for Jaune however, it landed the alleyway next to him, forcing him to roll out of the way of debris. As he got back to his feet he briefly made eye contact with the man, allowing him to make out a raccoon tail behind him.

"Good evening sir." He said before quickly climbing the ladder on the side of the building up. Seeing the girl turn her head towards the likely shop owner, she says something that he couldn't quite make out. Making his own decision, he uses his grapple hook to go to the next building's rooftop and not allowing the girl to see him.

Much to his surprise, however, the girl must've used her massive weapon's recoil to launch herself to the roof and landed with a "Hey!"

"Persistent." The man mumbled what very quickly got Jaune's full attention was the rumbling of jet engines. _Very_ shortly after, a medium sized VTOL craft that looked a lot like an Osprey but without the swept back wings and a shorter body.

The craft turned a searchlight on as a door on the side of it opens, allowing the man to enter with no difficulties. The thing that puzzled Jaune was why the girl just stood there, "End of the line, Red" He said after turning an holding out a fire dust crystal in his left hand and his cane held under his right arm

"Oh shit!" Jaune said, not caring if either heard him. Clearly, the man didn't or he didn't care since he threw the crystal at the girl. Letting his training take over, he quickly takes aim and fires at the dust and hits it mid-flight. With his immediate vision obstructed, he jumps over to the next rooftop and stops next to the girl in question.

"Who are you?" She asked with a somewhat squeaky, but innocent voice that reminds him of his younger sister.

"Irrelevant" Jaune says back. At that moment, another older woman appears much to his confusion on how she got there. The girl looked like she just saw her favorite celebrity while the man had a small amount of fear. Creating some kind of glyph to absorb any potential shrapnel and clearing the air allowing Jaune to see the ears of a honey badger.

She then quickly bombards the aircraft with strange purple objects, likely the product of her semblance. The man quickly enters the cockpit with another woman taking his place. However, even with his helmet's advanced optics, he couldn't make out any sort of face. The only notable feature was her tiger-like skin and red dress. At the same time, the honey badger creates storm clouds above the craft and uses it create very large and dangerous ice shards that pierce into the craft's hull.

The woman from inside the craft fires a bolt of, something, likely highly energized and aura infused fire Dust, at the three causing Jaune to dive away and missing the immediate effects of the blast. However, when does turn back towards the action, the building based woman had used a large number of equally large shards created from the rooftop to create a large spear and firing it at the craft. Jaune however, notices the woman in the red dress had a flame in her left hand, "Pyromancer." He muttered quietly. Quickly, glancing down at his weapon, he notices the scope was damaged and, while muttering a quiet curse, removes it and flips is rear iron sight up.

The woman in the craft had fired several bolts of flames at the shards slowing them down, but not stopping them. However, in a very smart move, the pilot tilts the craft downwards, causing the spear to strike at an angle resulting in a ricochet. The spear quickly breaks up into three or four smaller pieces before a small, but powerful blast completely destroys them clearing the immediate airspace and allowing them to leave.

By the time he took his place next to her again, the younger girl in red transforms her scythe-like weapon into another weapon he couldn't immediately recognize before firing. "Don't bother! You'll never damage them at this range!" He yelled while pushing the weapon down. She pouted but the other woman appeared to approve of the move as the craft very quickly left their sights.

"You're a huntress!" The younger one said, finally noticing her wolf ears and rapidly wagging tail. "Can I have your autograph?" She squealed.

"Oh dear god." Jaune said quietly. "Have a good night ladies," Jaune said as he attached his rifle to his back magnetically. However, at that moment, a purple aura surrounds him and lifts a few inches in the air.

At least an hour later, Jaune could only watch with pity as the older woman scolds the young girl. "I hope you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady. You put yourself and others in great danger." She said pacing behind them.

"Geez, kick her while she's down won't ya? Relax young wolf, you did fine." Jaune said, trying to calm her. However, since he arrived, he had yet to remove his helmet which only allowed to the see the three glowing blue, vertical slots that made up the bulk of his helmet. (A/N: The Advanced Helmet from Dead Space 2)

"You really mean that?" Red asked, some of the sulking not there anymore. "And they started it!"

"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home, with a pat on the back... " She said while walking herself in front of them with her words causing her spirit to rise, "And a slap on the wrist."She said quickly while slapping on the table what appeared to be a horse crop of some kind.

"But, there is someone here would like to meet you. Both of you." She said causing Jaune and Red to look at each other in confusion.

"I would have to agree with your friend, Miss Rose." A fourth person said as he entered the room with a plate of cookies in one hand a cup of coffee in the other, before sitting in the chair opposite them. "Ruby Rose. You have silver eyes…" He mused.

"U-Um…" Red, sorry, Ruby said in confusion.

"Creeper much?" Jaune thought out loud.

"So, where did you learn to do this?" The mystery man said, with the woman next to him showing combat footage shot from above her wiping the floor with the thugs.

"S-Signal Academy." She said nervously and with a raised eyebrow.

"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" He asked.

"That's the most dangerous weapon ever made huh?" Jaune said. "Nice job." He said while giving her a pat on the shoulder.

"Well, one teacher in particular," Ruby said, her confidence rising.

"I see…" The man said before laying the plate of cookies opposite Ruby, much to her joy as evidence by her wolf ears pointing straight up. Nervously, she reaches out and grabs a cookie and, much to Jaune's absolute shock, completely disappears. Had he not had his helmet on, his jaw would've been completely on the floor.

"I-I-Just, wow." Jaune muttered in bewilderment as she just made mincemeat of all the cookies on the plate.

"It's just the I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before." The man said.

"There's another one of those running around?!" Jaune said with complete shock.

"Indeed there is, but I'm not certain I know your name." He said to Jaune.

"My name's Jaune Arc Mr…" Jaune said.

"I'm Ozpin. I'm the headmaster of Beacon Academy, this is my deputy at the academy Glynda Goodwitch." The man, Ozpin said introducing himself and the woman next to him.

"But yes, Miss Rose. The only other person I've seen with that skill before is a dusty, old crow." Ozpin mused for a few moments.

Ruby, however, decided to say something, but the mouth full of cookies made useable speech impossible.

"Sorry," She said sheepishly, "That's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal! I was complete gar-" She continued on, but a message appeared on Jaune's HUD.

Opening it, it read ' _Are you in Vale?'_

Quickly opening the keyboard in his wrist and typed a quick response with it while it was under that table, 'Affirmative, but going dark. Cover blown.'

"So I've noticed," Ozpin said, half amused but not half disappointed, unlike Glynda. Ruby was holding her hands like a movie fight or something. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?" He asked.

"That's a good question Mr. Ozpin" Jaune said.

"Well… I want to be a Huntress." Ruby said.

'I think your definition of Huntress is different from mine.' Jaune thought to himself.

"You want to slay monsters?" Ozpin asked.

"Yeah!" Ruby replied. "I only have two more years of training left at Signal and then I'm going to apply to Beacon!" She continued. "You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, 'Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!' I mean the police are alright, but Huntsman and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and really, gosh, you know!" She said rapidly, but slow enough to allow everyone else to keep up.

"Wow. I have no words." Jaune said in awe. "Could you have said that any faster?" Glynda was unamused, still, but Jaune could see Ruby was excited because her tail was wagging very quickly.

"... Do you know who I am?" Ozpin asked.

"You said your name earlier, you're Professor Ozpin, you're the headmaster of Beacon Academy." Ruby said.

"Hello." Ozpin said causing Jaune to facepalm with a metallic thud.

"Nice to meet you" Ruby said back.

"You want to come to my school?" Now that got Ruby and Jaune's attention.

"More than anything." Ruby said. Ozpin simply looks over at Glynda who simply rolled her eyes in disapproval. "Well okay, and what about you Mr. Arc?"

"I don't know, I've got a good job right now." Jaune said.

"Such as?" Ozpin asked.

"That's, hard to explain." Jaune said before turning to Ruby, "Promise to not tell anyone about this?"

"About what?" Ruby asked. Then, to everyone's surprise, his helmet deconstructs from his head down to his neck.

"Mr. Arc, you are human," Ozpin mussed after his momentary shock.

"Human Pathfinder, Professor. My mission was to gather legally available maps and records of human settlements from before the Great War and the following Scourge." Jaune explained.

"Scourge?" Ruby asked.

"It's what we Humans called it. It was the disease that wiped out 95 percent of all Humans on Remnant" Jaune said. Ruby could only make an 'O' while Glynda and Ozpin looked at each other. "Once we gather these maps, we would enter those old settlements and recover lost records, artifacts, and if possible, technology." Jaune explained further.

"That would also make the first human in Vale for over eighty years." Ozpin said.

"I suppose so." Jaune said.

"Perhaps I could help with that." Ozpin said, getting Jaune's attention.

"Oh? And how can you do that exactly?"

"Beacon Academy has one of the best historians as a Professor, on top as well as many older and more complete maps in our archives." Ozpin said.

"Alright, on one condition: I get access to the maps I need as soon as I'm listed as a student." Jaune said, holding out his hand.

"You have a deal, Mr. Arc." Ozpin said as the two shakes hands.

So if it isn't already clear, this is gonna have my attention and focus for the foreseeable future and also, I want to use influences from several sci-fi universes and this will also be a test bed for some ideas I could use later down the line. So, sorry for burning out on Altered Destinies.


End file.
